born in India, ‘made’ in the US, now to the Netherlands

Many of the men and women sent from Washington DC as diplomats around the world grew up in a wealthy, politically oriented nest. Not so Shefali Razdan Duggal (50), the future American ambassador to the Netherlands. Duggal is a self made political animal. “As an immigrant, I represent the diverse face of the United States,” she told the US Senate in late July. “And the generations of people throughout our history who found opportunities in our great country.”

On Wednesday, the Senate voted in favor of Duggal’s nomination. She may be sworn in by King Willem Alexander next month. Duggal fills a vacancy that has been vacant for a year and a half after the departure of Pete Hoekstra, the previous ambassador in The Hague.

The Netherlands was also Hoekstra’s first diplomatic post, but otherwise the new and old ambassadors have little in common – they are opposites. Hoekstra was a conservative confidant of Donald Trump, representative of right-wing America. Duggal, who raised money for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, is a product of left, diverse America. The White House in a press release called her a “skilled political activist” and a “fighter for women’s rights and human rights.”

Clinton campaign team

Duggal was born in Haridwar, India, but grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a single mother who struggles with two minimum wage jobs, her father left the family when Duggal was young. “Rather than dwell on what I didn’t have,” Duggal said at the hearing, “I embraced the boundless opportunities we get in the United States.” With grants and loans, she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Miami University and a master’s degree from New York University. She knows from an early age that she wants to make a difference in politics and she knows very well who to turn to for that.

Although most Dutch people have never heard her name, Duggal has scored points among the most powerful American Democrats in recent decades. Under Senators Ted Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein, she sees up close how Washington works. In 2000, Duggal was on the campaign team of presidential candidate Al Gore and in 2008 with Hillary Clinton.

After Clinton loses the primaries to Barack Obama, Duggal raises funds for the winner. Obama appoints her to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which oversees the Holocaust Museum, among other things. She later becomes one of the two presidents of Women for Biden, a group of women raising funds for the Democratic Party. In Washington, she manages to build a bridge from the Democratic Party to the Indian-American community.

American business

Soon she will also have to build a bridge to the Netherlands. Duggal told the Senate that he especially wanted to improve economic ties between the two countries. She promised ‘to promote American business in the Netherlands’, and vice versa, ‘to encourage more Dutch investment in the United States’. But of course she is mainly there to support the more than 47 thousand Americans who live in the Netherlands and 1.5 million Americans who visit the country every year.

Above all, during the hearing, Duggal emphasized her loyalty to the country she will represent. “I was born in India,” says Duggal, “but made in the USA.” She closes her emails with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

When a local Cincinnati newspaper asks an old school friend about Duggal, she says she is jealous of the Dutch people. ‘An entire country is going to get to know her. How lucky they are’, says Maria Lisman, who has known Duggal for forty years. “She’s like a beam of light.”